Life Sentence to Killers

July 15, 1974

TEL AVIV (Jul. 14)

Three men, who murdered two prominent Gaza Strip community leaders in an effort to prevent an attempt by Israeli authorities to form a roof municipality for Gaza and its surrounding refugees camps, were sentenced today to life imprisonment by a military tribunal in Gaza. The court expressed regret it was unable to impose the death penalty on the three as their crimes warranted such a punishment.

The three — Mouhammed Salah el-Rukyou, a 24-year-old teacher, Khaled Aabed Attar, a 22-year-old teacher, and Farouk Mouhammed Abu Hassan, a 24-year-old law student — early last year murdered the chairman of the El Shatti Refugee Camp Committee and later a priest, Father Johanna Nimri, a noted moderate community leader in Gaza. They also carried out other hostile activities.

All three confessed to the murders after reports, in their own handwriting, were presented to the court. In these reports, captured at the command post of Gaza Strip terrorists, the three described their actions in details.